ABSTRACT
The Brazilian population makeup is one of the most genetically and culturally diverse populations in the world. This chapter examines Brazilian populations through personal vignettes and official Brazilian Census data and offers an overview that combines both personal and professional perspectives. Socioeconomic inequities are dramatically wide, and well-known research studies using the Gini Coefficient have shown that Brazil has one of the highest wealth disparities in the world; one could just as easily have an experience akin to being in Switzerland or Haiti, depending on the region, city, or neighborhood. Social interactions within research fieldwork are intensely personal; they can also be fluid and subjective. The Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches were largely disseminated in Sao Paulo by about 4,000 US Southern immigrants who moved to Brazil after the US Civil War, and who established their largest Southern community in Latin America in Santa Barbara D’Oeste.
